Arguably, the most important piece to the Illinois football offense is returning in 2025.
Since the 2024 regular season ended, the Illini have lost 13 players to the transfer portal. That isn’t a bad number, and considering there are seven new players coming in from the transfer portal, Bret Bielema has this program set up for success next season.
The hope is that the success from a great 2024 campaign will carry over into 2025. Illinois has our starting quarterback, Luke Altmyer, returning. Every running back is also back in the fold. But the offensive line could be an issue.
Well, on Saturday night, that issue was nearly resolved. JC Davis took to social media to announce that he is returning for one more season in Champaign.
— JC Davis (@JCDavis56) January 4, 2025
You might ask, wait, how is he returning? Well, the NCAA has extended another year to players who have suited up in the junior college ranks. That means, even if you have already played out your eligibility, if you suited up at the JUCO level, you automatically get another year.
Davis started his college career in the JUCO ranks at Contra Costa College. He then transferred to New Mexico for two seasons. After those two great years with the Lobos, Davis transferred to Illinois last season and performed well. With the new ruling, Davis is now back in the fold.
Illinois is getting back a wealth of talent and experience with Davis returning. He started every game for the Illini at left tackle last season. On top of that, Davis was third-team All-Big Ten and he was one of the highest-graded offensive tackles by Pro Football Focus.
Illinois football has now solidified the offense with JC Davis coming back and the transfer portal looking strong
At one point in the last couple of months, I was nervous about what the future might hold for the Illini. We were losing some serious talent, and without those players, Illinois could have easily struggled in 2025.
Davis seems like one of the final pieces for the Illini offseason, even though there are teams still playing and plenty of players in the transfer portal. With him returning, the Illinois offense looks pretty strong and should look nearly as good as what we saw in 2024.
As mentioned, Altmyer is back behind center and our running backs are all returning. The offensive line is looking as strong as ever in 2025 too. Illinois’ two starting tackles, Melvin Priestly and Davis, both started every game this past season and both are back in the fold. Josh Gesky and Josh Kreutz both started every game for the Illini at left guard and center, respectively.
Brandon Henderson is going to be back at right guard as well. He started the second half of the season. The player he replaced, Zy Crisler, is departing via the transfer portal.
Illinois is losing our top two wide receivers, but Bielema went into the transfer portal and snagged Hudson Clement out of West Virginia, who I believe is one of the top transfer portal wide receivers. We also landed Justin Bowick from Ball State.
When it comes to the tight end position, Illinois isn’t losing a lot of talent and we are gaining health. We are losing Henry Boyer, who didn’t have a reception and mostly played special teams and blocked. Illinois is getting healthy with the return of Cole Rusk, who we added in the transfer portal from last season. He didn’t play in 2024.
Illinois is locked and loaded for 2025. This team that won 10 games brings back nearly every single player on the offensive side of the ball. Buckle up, folks.